Atienza book to be launched today

While published accounts of the historic four days of the internationally-known peaceful EDSA People Power Revolution are plenty—with some more accurate and truthful than others—not many have delved into some important factors that actually helped make it possible.
In his newly-released autobiography entitled “Light from My Father’s Shadow,” Jose “Lito” Atienza—former environment secretary—recounts some of recent Philippine history’s most critical moments. Recollecting the days under the Marcos dictatorship, Atienza’s book describes in depth the role of the political opposition.
For during the Interim Batasang Pambansa elections.
“There the simple participation of people worked to spread the message: ‘Ninoy was cheated...join the nation in delivering a message to Marcos…’ As scheduled, at 6 pm on that day, the whole of Metro Manila erupted in an orgy of noise that was so loud, so sustained and so widespread it shook the foundations of the dictatorship…
“For figures like Teofisto ‘Tito’ Guingona, Jr. and other opposition leaders were brusquely dragged to jail that afternoon. But the noise barrage was widely successful. The barrage was not merely a protest against the cheating first proof that people were already awakening to the reality that Marcos was abusing his constitutional mandate. For the oppositionists, the success of the noise barrage opened our eyes to the truth: ‘Marami pala tayo at pwede palang lumaban’…
In leaders who had the foresight to eschew the boycott option during the 1984 parliamentary elections.
With a landslide win in Metro Manila, and with surprising electoral victories even in once-“solid Marcos” areas across the Philippines, the participation advocates were proven right, Atienza points out.
“It certainly inspired the other oppositionists. If the boycott movement had succeeded, then we would not have of Marcos, the weakening of his iron hold.”

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